High school football is in the air as CHad practice opens

Quarterback James Caparell, during Bedford High School's football practice in Bedford last season (Thomas Roy/Union Leader)

June has become high school football season in New Hampshire.

Practice for the second CHaD East-West All-Star Game will begin today at two locations: The East team will practice at Exeter High from 4:15 to 7:45 p.m.; and the West will hold its first workout at Manchester Memorial from 4:30 to 8:15 p.m. Practices are open to the public.

Each team will have 10 days of practice leading up to this year’s game, which will be held June 29 (1 p.m.) at the University of New Hampshire’s Cowell Stadium. Proceeds from the game will benefit Children’s Hospital at Dartmouth-Hitchcock.

Former Manchester Central coach Jim Schubert is the West’s head coach. Former Concord coach Bob Camirand will coach the East.

Players in the game are recently graduated seniors.

Each coach said the limited amount of preparation time is the biggest challenge in an all-star game.

“We’ll be running a pro-type offense that I used at Central,” Schubert said. “The defense usually takes care of itself and goes in pretty quickly, but you only have so many days to put the offense in. Most of our QBs worked out of a spread offense, and most of my offense is under center. Everything is timing. We won’t be dropping back to pass and waiting for someone to get open — I don’t teach that.”

Camirand had to replace two players on the East roster Monday, and both are quarterbacks. Camirand said Pinkerton quarterback Sean Conroy and Winnacunnet linebacker Niles Connor have been added to the team, replacing Pinkerton’s Chris St. Onge and Somersworth’s Drew Francouer. Conroy and Windham’s Joe Lorenz are the team’s two quarterbacks.

“We’ll try to keep them safe,” Camirand said. “We have enough athletes, so we’ll also have a third one ready.”

Camirand said the wing-T and the straight-T will be two of the East’s four formations.

Bedford’s James Caparell and Keene’s Lucas Luopa are among the West quarterbacks.

Milford lineman Brett Stagnone was a late addition to the West roster.

“The strength of our roster are the skill kids,” Schubert said. “I think we only have 12 linemen on the team. We didn’t have a lot of linemen to choose from at the beginning, so whenever we’ve had to replace a kid I’ve tried to replace him with a lineman.”

Tickets to this year’s game can be purchased by visiting the following website: www.chadallstarfootball.org. Tickets can also be purchased for the CHaD All-Star Tailgate Banquet, which will be held June 28 at the Radisson Hotel in Manchester.

The West won the inaugural game 44-12 last year.

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A free youth clinic sponsored by the New England Patriots and the New England Patriots Alumni Club will be held at UNH’s Bremner Field (the UNH soccer field) on the morning of this year’s CHaD game. The non-contact clinic is open to boys and girls ages 10-14 of all skill levels.

Former New England Patriot players will be the clinic’s instructors. Registration for the clinic is scheduled to begin at 8:30 a.m., and all participants will receive a complimentary ticket to this year’s game.